Rosieland Roundup 139 — Don't call it a community

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💡 Don't call it a community

I know we love community. We want to shout about it. We want to reference it in a way that recognises the community work we do.

However, sometimes we can choose not to call our community a community. Sometimes we need to put on a bit of a marketing and branding hat.

I'll show you how with an example.  

I saw Relay launch on Product Hunt. My eyes pinged at the 'second brain' and 'SaaS startups'. They are both things I get excited about.

So I went to check it out, and it turns out the tech behind it is Discourse. It's essentially a forum structured to feel more 'second brain' like. It's still people coming together and having conversations. It's still a community.

Sometimes you have to put on your marketing hat and think about what your people want, the tech behind it doesn't define what you can call your community.

🌈 This week in Rosieland

• On platforms doing the heavy marketing lifting
• Content probably matters more than we think [Paid]
• DevRel != Community
• Do we need a healthy dose of realism in the community space?
• How might the Nolan Principles apply to community professionals?

🤓 Rosieland Roundup...

Why brands are obsessed with building community — I was worried about this one focusing on community as marketing, but I was pleased to see fandom and Interintellect mentioned, amongst other things.

What to do when your open source project becomes a community? — the name implies it, communities often don't start off as communities, they start with ideas and projects.

How to build a community around your brand or purpose — a look at how to build a community, written from participating in the recent community unconference organised by James Cattell.

Where can you talk about ~mom stuff~ that isn't Facebook? — A nice read from the perspective of someone thinking about how community was in the past and what they yearn for as they think about creating one.

The five principles of creating community connections at scale — all five posts now available, by Hugh Lashbrooke

Societal Knowledge Management — Knowledge is communal. Most of what we think to be our knowledge is in the heads of other people. This is my bedtime reading tonight. ❤️

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